No Glue
There doesn’t appear to be any reason for these random thoughts to “stick†together. But that’s ok, they give a kaleidoscope view of the past little bit of time in my life.
- My friend John just finished the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend. Kudos to John for sticking it out through all the training and injuries. I would love to run a marathon, I even like his method of running 8 minutes, walking 1 minute (both while training and during the race). It was great fun to watch his progress via the internet. Each runner had a computer chip in their shoelace and as they ran over special mats on the route the information was instantly sent online for us to track split times, etc. Imagine us sitting in a friend’s living room cheering for a yellow dot on a little computer map. My sister is training for the Richmond marathon in a few weeks. I’ll be cheering for her from afar (and wishing I could run with her). It’s probably not likely that I’ll pick up long-distance running again though. Mark doesn’t like to run, but he does like to ride a bicycle. So I’ve switched from foot contact with the pavement and moved up to wheeled contact. The highlight of last fall was riding a century (100 miles in one day).
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Today is my grand-daughter, Éva’s second birthday. This year instead of the typical Dr. Seuss birthday bird greeting (a tradition in our family) I sent her an email with the Hebrew version. It was also our Hebrew professor’s birthday. We posted a “Happy Birthday to You†in Hebrew sign in the classroom as a surprise. The surprise was on us when he used it to give us extra credit questions for our quiz.
- We’ve been on the road just about every weekend for the past month or so. We’ve been to NJ (my aunt’s memorial service), to NY (to see some old friends and my sister’s family), to NC (to see Sarah and her family), and to VA (to visit our friends from “homeâ€). In between the trips we’ve visited family in PA, been to an Indelible Grace concert (thanks Christiana for the CD, we really love it!), and taken in a few (non-class) evening lectures at WTS. Which means we haven’t had a “normal†week or weekend in two months. We are now able to be home until the end of the semester (except for Thanksgiving) and we are planning on trying to finish unpacking, getting out on the bicycles, and getting ahead on academic reading.
- Last week we had a wonderful evening with some of the Chinese students from WTS. They invited us to dinner at the Chinese Students’ House (named in Chinese “House of Heavenly Graceâ€). What a joy to get to know these wonderful brothers and sisters who are sacrificing so much to be here and who have such a heart for the future of their country. While the door is not yet open, they are confident that soon it will be legal for Bible training and seminary training to occur in Mainland China. To be completely ready as soon as the doors open, they are training leaders now. Every Sunday the house opens up for all the other Chinese students to join them for 3 hours of teaching and prayer, and to share a meal. Many of them come from House Churches in China, and they have a unique burden for those who remain in China.
- For the first time in many years, we are living in a state that is pivotal for a national election. This means we are inundated with campaign mail, signs, commercials, etc. The worst is the early morning commute “honk-if-you-like-Joe-Politician†campaigners lined up on the streets. We’ve had many interesting discussions regarding this election, but it certainly isn’t easy to come to any conclusions. I cannot think of the last time that we were still wrestling with how to vote so close to the actual election. We’ll be watching the returns on Tuesday with great interest.
I have some notes of scribbled ideas to share here… and I’ll be more regular about getting those thoughts posted. Coming attractions: Update on the New Testament rabbi assignment, Unity ≠Unison, Lunchtime Theology, An Annoted Bibliography of what we’re reading (and what we wish we had time to read), and an update on our search for a church home.